I decided to leave Missy a note. Cowardly of me not to face her but she wasn’t home anyway! The note read: I was wondering if it was possible for you to leave the table leg on the balcony and just wipe of the tables when you are done so that we can both enjoy my tables? Thank you :)” Yeah, I included a smiley face. I figured it didn’t sound too bad although it could be interpreted as direct… maybe even rude. But what the hell! It was war after all!!! Right? Still… I was not guilt-free.
A full day passed. No sign of the neighbour nor the table leg. Hmmm… I was feeling more and more guilty. What if she were insulted and infuriated? What if she talked with her brother and then he would tell me off for being rude to his sister??? Maybe I should just go talk to her…!?
I was clearing out the back-door balcony and knocked on Missy’s door (that happened to be open). Nothing. I knocked louder. Silence. Maybe she was really upset and didn’t even want to talk to me!!! Geez Louise!!!! What had I done!? I decided to go ring her doorbell. Nothing. I was feeling like crap. I decided to go back to the back of the apartment and I saw Felix walk into his aunt’s place. I took advantage of the situation and ask Felix to ask his aunt if she wanted Michael’s old BBQ. She finally came out back. My first reaction was to study her traits. Were her eyebrows stuck in the middle in a furious manner? Were her teeth grinning in anger? Was steam coming out of her ears? No. no and no. Maybe she wasn’t upset at me after all. I said hi and asked her sweetly if she was going to use Michael’s old BBQ. “Oh, I don’t think I would even bother with that old thing. You can throw it out if you want. By the way, don’t worry about the table. I’ll take care of it later.” She smiled and went back inside while I struggled to get that old BBQ inside the house and dump it out in the street for the garbage truck to pick it up. Would have been nice if she had given me a hand but what was I expecting really? I think some people just aren't as helpful as one would like them to be. It just doesn’t cross their mind. Nothing personal… but still…
Anyhow, after the table leg incident, I decided to relax and just enjoy Missy for who she is. Nothing out of this world but still friendly and nice enough... Last night, she knocked on my door to show me the new kitten she had just bought. I said her kitten was adorable and that she better be ready to loose some sleep over it in the next couple of weeks. Still, it was cute of her to show off her cat. What else was there to say? This morning, while I was having a café au lait and replying to a few e-mails on the balcony, she walked out of her apartment and chatted a bit about her new cat waking her up at 6 o’clock this morning. She was there for about 10 minutes and we made small talk and seeing I was keeping busy with my laptop, she walked back inside.
Part of me feels bad about not wanting to socialize too much with her. It feels like she looking to make me a friend… little does she know that I don’t make friends easily (and that’s a major understatement!). The other part of me wants to hold on to my privacy… feeling like I’m living in my own little world… I’ll come out of my shell eventually… on my own terms of course.
So this neighbourly invasion is slowly starting to shape into neighbourly peace once again. It’s all about adjusting… Bla bla bla…
Ally L.